Revision of Prayer Book by Psychologists Urged at Conference of Jewish Chaplains

A recommendation that the prayer book currently used by Jewish chaplains be revised was presented yesterday at a conference of the Division of Religious Activities of the Jewish Welfare board. Frank L. Weil, president of the J.W.B., told the 52 chaplains attending the conference that Jewish chaplains have a greater responsibility in the armed forces today than during wartime.

Rabbis Israel Gerber, of Fitchburg, Mass., and Ronald Gittlesohn, of Rockville Centre, L.I., emphasized that hospitalized Jewish veterans require special devotional literature and urged that prayer books prepared for Jewish veterans who are mentally ill be “carefully screened by psychologists and psychiatrists” to eliminate “many mystic elements from religion.”